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ReBirth Is Back! Turns Your iPhone, iPad Into A Techno Studio!

Propellerhead Software has announcedReBirth (App Store link) for the iPhone – a new app that brings the classic virtual studio back to life.

As the promo video notes, ReBirth was a milestone in electronic music. It was an affordable application that turned your computer into a techno studio, complete with a Roland TR-808, a Roland TR-909 and two (2!) Roland TB-303 Computer Controlled Bass Line synthesizers.

People freaked out about ReBirth – because it gave you access to thousands of dollars of rare gear, in virtual form – and because it let you make and share techno music from your computer.

Now it’s available for $6.99 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. And ReBirth for the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad is another milestone.

ReBirth helped establish the idea of virtual studios. And while there are already many music apps for the iPhone platform, ReBirth is going to help establish the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad platform as a virtual studio, too.

What a complete no-brainer…….

For the price of lunch, you can put a virtual studio on your iPhone and carry it with you wherever your are. That’s pretty amazing.

And, if you think about how quickly ReBirth on the desktop evolved into things like Propellerhead Reason - it’s pretty clear that amazing things are coming.

Check it out and let me know what you think about ReBirth coming to the iPhone!

Note: ReBirth runs in iPhone scaled mode on the iPad, which is lame. This is something they should update asap!

About Propellerhead ReBirth:

ReBirth is back…In your iPhone! Propellerhead Software’s legendary Techno Micro Composer has been reincarnated. This time around, ReBirth takes the form of a seriously block rocking iPhone music app. Released in 1997 and discontinued in 2005, Propellerhead ReBirth was the first music software to reproduce the sound and behavior of those three classic Roland devices that defined the sound of early Techno and Acid House: the TB-303 Bassline Synth and the TR-808 and TR-909 Rhythm Composers.

With dual basssynths and pattern sequencers, two sets of drum machines plus FX and mixer sections, ReBirth gives you an extremely streamlined but very powerful music production environment. Every knob and button on ReBirth’s devices can be tweaked and turned in real time, so when you plug your iPhone into that massive sound system, you’re in charge everything from pattern selections to the depth of those nasty Acid filter squelches.

ReBirth for the iPhone may be small and ever so cutesy looking, but it’s no toy, believe it. With a fully featured song mode and advanced copying and pasting capabilities, ReBirth is a fully featured iPhone music software product that lets you arrange and compose full tracks for saving to your iPhone. You can even share your songs with other ReBirth users – one single click will upload your composition to the ReBirth server, allowing other users to enjoy your music in their iPhones.

ReBirth for iPhone – music production software for the iPhone, perfect for music making on the go and with the sought after sounds for everything from Techno to Electro, House to Hip Hop, Electronica or whatever style you are into.

I'm not excited about it…It's very small on the iphone and i bet that accidental presses of nearby keys will be a routine with this app. I was one of the first people who bought Rebirth, but i really can't see its value on the iphone nowadays…Its just another music toy. It never was the perfect emulation and now its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip. Seriously, there are much more intuitive and inspiring multitouch music apps for the iPhone. Rebirth for iPhone is a boring and bad implementation…they could at least make each device viewed fullscreen but instead of that, they just ported the pc application to the iphone with no special UI optimizations…just a zoom and some menu buttons….A quick job to earn money.I

I'm not excited about it…It's very small on the iphone and i bet that accidental presses of nearby keys will be a routine with this app. I was one of the first people who bought Rebirth, but i really can't see its value on the iphone nowadays…Its just another music toy. It never was the perfect emulation and now its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip. Seriously, there are much more intuitive and inspiring multitouch music apps for the iPhone. Rebirth for iPhone is a boring and bad implementation…they could at least make each device viewed fullscreen but instead of that, they just ported the pc application to the iphone with no special UI optimizations…just a zoom and some menu buttons….A quick job to earn money.I

I'm not excited about it…It's very small on the iphone and i bet that accidental presses of nearby keys will be a routine with this app. I was one of the first people who bought Rebirth, but i really can't see its value on the iphone nowadays…Its just another music toy. It never was the perfect emulation and now its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip. Seriously, there are much more intuitive and inspiring multitouch music apps for the iPhone. Rebirth for iPhone is a boring and bad implementation…they could at least make each device viewed fullscreen but instead of that, they just ported the pc application to the iphone with no special UI optimizations…just a zoom and some menu buttons….A quick job to earn money.I

I'm not excited about it…It's very small on the iphone and i bet that accidental presses of nearby keys will be a routine with this app. I was one of the first people who bought Rebirth, but i really can't see its value on the iphone nowadays…Its just another music toy. It never was the perfect emulation and now its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip. Seriously, there are much more intuitive and inspiring multitouch music apps for the iPhone. Rebirth for iPhone is a boring and bad implementation…they could at least make each device viewed fullscreen but instead of that, they just ported the pc application to the iphone with no special UI optimizations…just a zoom and some menu buttons….A quick job to earn money.I

After spending a half hour composing a track with it, your left wanting to do a lot more. Propellerheads releasing a discounted product to a new device. Kinda reminds me of hollywood directors rehash great classics with new technology. If your going to bring it back from the past, completely remake it. Don't get me wrong, I do think this is nice and definitely shows what's to come next will hopefully be better. Developing it specifically for the iPad first would have been better IMHO. It's worth the price, fun to play with, not too practical. Reason for iPad/iPhone would be pretty killer.

After spending a half hour composing a track with it, your left wanting to do a lot more. Propellerheads releasing a discounted product to a new device. Kinda reminds me of hollywood directors rehash great classics with new technology. If your going to bring it back from the past, completely remake it. Don't get me wrong, I do think this is nice and definitely shows what's to come next will hopefully be better. Developing it specifically for the iPad first would have been better IMHO. It's worth the price, fun to play with, not too practical. Reason for iPad/iPhone would be pretty killer.

Alex, I don't agree with your casual analysis of the iPhone's sound quality. You said; "…its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip." You seem to be implying that Propellerhead's ReBirth was bad to begin with and say it will be "more worse" by using the iPhone. You are entitled to your opinion. If you do not like the way the iPhone (or ReBirth) sounds, I cannot argue, but I can disagree.

On Sunday May 2, 2010, I downloaded ReBirth for my iPhone and am amazed at how powerful that little device now is. ReBirth in my pocket? Amazing! Propellerhead Software and Retronyms have achieved history. The rebirth of ReBirth!

First of all, I used ReBirth on the first iMac about 10 or so years ago. I thought at that time (and still think today) that it was, and is, a great achievement in musical instrument design, as is Reason (I am a Reason 4 user). I have a real Roland TB-303 and TR-808 and feel that Propellerhead did a fantastic job at making those analog instruments available to just about anyone. And now, at less that seven dollars, I would say even more accessible.

All design is a trade-off. There are always limitations and compromises. The iPhone has a small screen, and one has to zoom to use the controls with precision. I was bad at it yesterday, but accessed the great online manual (from my iPhone), and became more proficient this morning. I think with practice, people will really enjoy using this program.

As far as the sound quality goes, I think it sounds great! Yesterday I was using my Apple iPod earbuds. Not bad, but not the best way to enjoy ReBirth. Today I wasn't mobile, so I plugged in my fine (to my ears) AKG studio headphones and was amazed at what this little iPhone could do! Tomorrow I will test out ReBirth playing through my digital interface and studio monitors. I can hardly wait!

Alex, I don't agree with your casual analysis of the iPhone's sound quality. You said; "…its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip." You seem to be implying that Propellerhead's ReBirth was bad to begin with and say it will be "more worse" by using the iPhone. You are entitled to your opinion. If you do not like the way the iPhone (or ReBirth) sounds, I cannot argue, but I can disagree.

On Sunday May 2, 2010, I downloaded ReBirth for my iPhone and am amazed at how powerful that little device now is. ReBirth in my pocket? Amazing! Propellerhead Software and Retronyms have achieved history. The rebirth of ReBirth!

First of all, I used ReBirth on the first iMac about 10 or so years ago. I thought at that time (and still think today) that it was, and is, a great achievement in musical instrument design, as is Reason (I am a Reason 4 user). I have a real Roland TB-303 and TR-808 and feel that Propellerhead did a fantastic job at making those analog instruments available to just about anyone. And now, at less that seven dollars, I would say even more accessible.

All design is a trade-off. There are always limitations and compromises. The iPhone has a small screen, and one has to zoom to use the controls with precision. I was bad at it yesterday, but accessed the great online manual (from my iPhone), and became more proficient this morning. I think with practice, people will really enjoy using this program.

As far as the sound quality goes, I think it sounds great! Yesterday I was using my Apple iPod earbuds. Not bad, but not the best way to enjoy ReBirth. Today I wasn't mobile, so I plugged in my fine (to my ears) AKG studio headphones and was amazed at what this little iPhone could do! Tomorrow I will test out ReBirth playing through my digital interface and studio monitors. I can hardly wait!

Alex, I don't agree with your casual analysis of the iPhone's sound quality. You said; "…its sound will be even more worse through the lame iPhone sound chip." You seem to be implying that Propellerhead's ReBirth was bad to begin with and say it will be "more worse" by using the iPhone. You are entitled to your opinion. If you do not like the way the iPhone (or ReBirth) sounds, I cannot argue, but I can disagree.

On Sunday May 2, 2010, I downloaded ReBirth for my iPhone and am amazed at how powerful that little device now is. ReBirth in my pocket? Amazing! Propellerhead Software and Retronyms have achieved history. The rebirth of ReBirth!

First of all, I used ReBirth on the first iMac about 10 or so years ago. I thought at that time (and still think today) that it was, and is, a great achievement in musical instrument design, as is Reason (I am a Reason 4 user). I have a real Roland TB-303 and TR-808 and feel that Propellerhead did a fantastic job at making those analog instruments available to just about anyone. And now, at less that seven dollars, I would say even more accessible.

All design is a trade-off. There are always limitations and compromises. The iPhone has a small screen, and one has to zoom to use the controls with precision. I was bad at it yesterday, but accessed the great online manual (from my iPhone), and became more proficient this morning. I think with practice, people will really enjoy using this program.

As far as the sound quality goes, I think it sounds great! Yesterday I was using my Apple iPod earbuds. Not bad, but not the best way to enjoy ReBirth. Today I wasn't mobile, so I plugged in my fine (to my ears) AKG studio headphones and was amazed at what this little iPhone could do! Tomorrow I will test out ReBirth playing through my digital interface and studio monitors. I can hardly wait!

Seriously: I think the processor can't handle what a typical Reason user does/expects (dozens of tracks with multiple effects), and adapting such a complex software to a touch-only interface is not exactly trivial.

I guess we'll see something between this reborn ReBirth and Reason – a kind of "Reason SE" – in a year or so. The Propellerheads aren't exactly known for speedy development. But I guess when it comes out, it'll be reliable and sound great.